U.S. chat-show host Jay Leno insists that he will not apologize to the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen for mocking him as a “drunken moron” on the “Tonight Show”.

Leno lampooned a photo of Mr. Cowen in front of his audience, asking them to guess if he was a bartender, a politician or a “nightclub comedian”, before revealing he was the “Prime Minister of Ireland” to loud cheers and laughter.

“He’s Brian Cowen, the Prime Minister of Ireland. Oh God, it’s so nice to know we’re not the only country with drunken morons, isn’t it?” Leno joked.

Leno’s ridiculing comments towards the Irish government leader were condemned in Dublin by the head of the Oireachtas Communications Committee, MJ Nolan.

“It’s obviously a very popular program in the States, and it’s not the type of publicity we want for us in the current climate when we’re trying to do everything to improve our image internationally,” he said.

In recent weeks, improving Ireland’s international appeal seems to be of little importance to An Taoiseach, who has allegedly been out drowning his sorrows while the country goes down the tube. The Prime Minister hit a new low after he was accused of being intoxicated during an interview on the countries prestigious national broadcast show, RTE’s ‘Morning Ireland’. He admitted afterward that he needed to be more cautious in his social life but strongly denied he was drunk or hungover during the interview.

Drunk or not, the ramifications of Ireland’s economic debacle, governmental conflicts and public concerns continue to fester and multiply throughout the emerald isle. Even NewsFeed knows that the answers won’t be found at the bottom of a glass.